Philadelphia Struggles with Opiate Epidemic; Official Backs More Treatment

By |October 9, 2013

Philadelphia is struggling with an opiate epidemic. It’s not just heroin, but also strong prescription painkillers that produce a similar high and can turn some patients, or their friends and relatives, into addicts. “This is a serious issue that crosses all age groups and demographics,” Roland Lamb, director of the city’s Office of Addiction Services, tells the Philadelphia Daily News.

Last year, opiates accounted for five of the 10 most frequently detected drugs in bodies handled by the city Medical Examiner’s Office. “We’re seeing most of our new initiates with illicit drug use beginning with prescriptions for opioids,” Lamb said. “No longer do you have this vision of someone who’s being approached in a dark alley if you want to do some drugs.” Lamb urged shifting resources from law enforcement to treatment-based strategies to combat substance abuse. Philadelphia has long been known as a destination for cheap, high-purity heroin. “I would like to figure out ways to keep people out of … the criminal-justice system altogether so we can begin to work with them and they can have a future for themselves, as opposed to getting arrested, having a record and then having to deal with getting in recovery,” Lamb said.

The legislation marks a major change for Republicans, who long hve embraced a law-and-order rallying cry. Now many GOP senators argue for rehabilitating more offenders rather than long-time incarceration.

An Arizona doctor argues that the government should have learned from previous federal anti-drug strategies that blanket prohibition doesn’t work. He calls for scrapping attempts to curtail opioids and replacing it with “harm reduction” policies.

Expensive medications for inmates can lead to substandard care and delays in treatment, and that may have lasting—even deadly—consequences for incarcerated individuals, writes a prison health care advocate.

Murder rates in the nation’s 30 largest cities are projected to fall by nearly 6 percent this year according to the latest data, undercutting claims that the nation is experiencing a “crime wave,” says the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law.

School safety commission proposes ending a federal guideline telling schools not to punish minorities at higher rates. The panel largely sidestepped issues relating to guns, although it favors arming some school personnel.